These Startups Are Setting a Precedent in Catering to Mental Health Issues

The Asia Pacific is the third largest market for mental health medicines, as per the report of Lancet. Apart from medicinal expertise, how people of Asia dealing with the battle of mental illness are is the right question.

The discussion on mental health has been on and off the table in the last decade. It is only now that people have become more vocal about it as it doesn’t just directly affect the person but it makes an impact on social cohesion and economic development.

As per the Lancet study, across Asia-Pacific, anything from 4 per cent (Singapore) to 20 per cent (Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia) of the adult population experiences a diagnosable mental illness in any given year. The study also indicates that in some countries – such as China, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia – prevalence rates have increased. It found that mental, neurological and disorders, which accounted for 7 per cent of disability-adjusted life years across China in 1990, had risen to 11 per cent by 2013. In India, the burden of disease increased from 3 per cent in 1990 to 6 per cent in 2013. Read more